The Desert of Atacama VI
By Raúl Zurita
Translated By Anna Deeny Morales
Arid plains do not dream
No one has ever managed to see
Those chimerical pampas
i. The landscapes are convergent and divergent in the
Desert of Atacama
ii. Over the convergent and divergent landscape Chile
is convergent and divergent in the Desert of Atacama
iii. That's why what's there never was there and if it
were to stay where it is it would see its own life turn
around until being the chimerical plains deserted
enlightened fading away like them
iv. And when the convergent and divergent landscapes
of the Desert of Atacama unfold themselves
all of Chile will have been the life beyond because
unlike Atacama they are already extending themselves
like a dream the deserts of our own chimera
over there in these plains of hell
Copyright Credit: Republished with permission of University of California Press, “The Desert of Atacama VI” from Purgatory by Raúl Zurita. Copyright © 2009 by Raúl Zurita. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
Source: Purgatory (University of California Press, 2009)